St Luke's Anglican Church is a heritage-listed

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

at Elizabeth Drive,

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, Australia. It was designed by

Francis Greenway Francis Greenway (20 November 1777 - September 1837) was an English-Australian convict and colonial architect. After being convicted of forgery in England and subsequently transported to New South Wales, Australia (known then as New Holland) ...

and built from 1818 to 1820. The property is owned by the Anglican Parish of Liverpool and is the oldest still existing Anglican church in Australia. It was added to the

New South Wales State Heritage Register The New South Wales State Heritage Register, also known as NSW State Heritage Register, is a heritage list of places in the state of New South Wales, Australia, that are protected by New South Wales legislation, generally covered by the Heritag ...

on 2 April 1999.

History

Commissioned by Governor

Lachlan Macquarie Major-general (United Kingdom), Major General Lachlan Macquarie, Companion of the Order of the Bath, CB (; ; 31 January 1762 – 1 July 1824) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator from Scotland. Macquarie served as the fifth Gove ...

and designed by

, St Luke's Church was built in 1818–1819 as part of Macquarie's establishment plan for the town of Liverpool. It was the smallest of the three major church designs commissioned by Macquarie from Greenway, the others being St James' Church in

and St Matthew's Anglican Church in . A rectory was built about the same time but was replaced in 1840. The site for Liverpool was marked out by Macquarie in 1810. St Luke's was one of the original public buildings for the town. Its foundation stone was laid in 1818. Its original builder

Nathaniel Lucas Nathaniel Lucas (1764–1818) was a convict transported to Australia on the First Fleet. His occupation was listed as carpentry, carpenter. Life Lucas was born in Leatherhead, Surrey, England, to parents John Lucas & Mary Bradford in 1764. L ...

died at an early stage and the job was taken over by James Smith. The Rev. Robert Cartwright was the first Minister and the first service was held on St. Luke's Day, 18 October 1819. Governor Macquarie attended a service in December 1820. The building was not fully completed until the early 1820s. A rectory and school building, since demolished, were built close by. The oldest extant associated building on the site is the church hall, part of which dates from the 1840s. Rev. James Walker, described by William Woolls as "one of the most learned men who ever came to the colonies", was an Oxford MA, had been chaplain at George Town,

Van Diemen's Land Van Diemen's Land was the colonial name of the island of Tasmania during the European exploration of Australia, European exploration and colonisation of Australia in the 19th century. The Aboriginal Tasmanians, Aboriginal-inhabited island wa ...

, before William Broughton appointed him to the new incumbency of

Marsfield Marsfield is a suburb in the Northern Sydney region of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Marsfield is located 16 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district and is in the local government area of the City of R ...

and the headmastership of The King's School in 1843. Walker had studied botany in Europe, but neither published, wrote, described any species, assembled any collection, or performed any task by which posterity is able to judge the quality of any botanical labour he undertook. Walker's stay in Parramatta was not long. He left in 1847 to become the rector of St. Luke's at Liverpool. It was from the Rev. Walker, Woolls said that he had "first imbibed a taste for Australian botany". As a consequence, Woolls would earn for himself a place among the distinguished Australian botanists of the 19th century. The interior was completed in 1824. Various additions and modifications were made to the church over the years. The chancel was added in 1857, and the

porch A porch (; , ) is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance to a building. A porch is placed in front of the façade of a building it commands, and forms a low front. Alternatively, it may be a vestibule (architecture), vestibule (a s ...

on the north side, formerly supported by four timber

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...

s, was enclosed in 1860. The vestries were added in the 1890s. A gallery was added at an unknown date, but was later removed. Greenway's original portico on the north side was replaced by a brick porch in the 1870s but this, in turn, was replaced by a replica of the original portico in 1923. An oversight was noticed during the

Moore College Moore Theological College, otherwise known simply as Moore College, is the theological training seminary of the Diocese of Sydney in the Anglican Church of Australia. The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney holds ''ex officio'' the presidency of t ...

1956 centenary when it was seen that the church had not been consecrated in 1819. The church was subject to a major restoration between 1975 and 1978.

Description

St Luke's Anglican Church is a Georgian brick church with tower,

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cu ...

and additional chancel and vestries, set in open grounds in the centre of Liverpool. The clock in the tower is rare in Australia, being one of three

Thwaites & Reed Thwaites & Reed has been in continuous manufacture since its foundation and claims to be the oldest clock manufacturing company in the world. Geoffrey Buggins MBE, the last of the original family clockmakers, saw drawings of Thwaites clocks dati ...

(UK) clocks in Australia, sent (gifted) by King

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...

(one in Parramatta at the

Parramatta Female Factory The Parramatta Female Factory is a National Heritage List (Australia), National Heritage Listed place and has three original sandstone buildings and the sandstone gaol walls. The Parramatta Female Factory was designed by Convicts in Australia, c ...

one in Hobart).Brown, 2002 The grounds contain some recent paving, but is otherwise mainly open and grassed, with mature lemon scented gums (''

Corymbia citriodora ''Corymbia citriodora'', commonly known as lemon-scented gum and other common names, is a species of tall tree that is endemic to north-eastern Australia. It has smooth white to pink bark, narrow lance-shaped to curved adult leaves, flower buds ...

''), stringybarks (''

Eucalyptus crebra ''Eucalyptus crebra'', commonly known as the narrow-leaved ironbark, narrow-leaved red ironbark or simply ironbark, and as muggago in the indigenous Tharawal, Dharawal language, is a species of small to medium-sized tree Endemism, endemic to east ...

''), bloodwoods (''

Corymbia ''Corymbia'', commonly known as bloodwoods, is a genus of about one hundred species of tree that, along with ''Eucalyptus'', '' Angophora'' and several smaller groups, are referred to as eucalypts. Until 1990, corymbias were included in the g ...

sp.''), and a kurrajong ('' Brachychiton populneum''). The church was reported to be in good condition as of 8 April 1998.

Heritage listing

St Luke's Anglican Church is evidence of Governor Macquarie's initiatives in opening up settlement in New South Wales. It is one of the three oldest surviving Anglican churches in Australia, and a fine example of Francis Greenway's public architecture in New South Wales. It is widely regarded with St James' Church, Sydney and St Matthew's Anglican Church, Windsor as a "foundation" colonial church. The clock in the tower is a

clock, one of five sent as a gift from

King George IV George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 29 January 1820 until his death in 1830. At the time of his accession to the throne, h ...

(the others being in the

, St. John's Parramatta, St. Matthew's Windsor and in

Hobart Hobart ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent, it is the southernmost capital city in Australia. Despite containing nearly hal ...

). St Luke's Anglican Church Group, as part of Macquarie's original survey of Liverpool, demonstrates the history of the early settlement of the city and is a physical link to the character of the early township. It also demonstrates the history of the Anglican Church from the early establishment of the Colony from which period it has been a centre for local worship. The group is associated with many key Colonial figures, including the Architect Francis Greenway and is representative of his early colonial architectural style. Located within the heart of Liverpool the group is a historic, aesthetically pleasing landmark in an otherwise modernised city centre. It is one of only three surviving early Anglican churches in the country. There is the potential to gain more information on the site from further architectural, archaeological and

documentary research Documentary research is the use of outside sources, documents, to support the viewpoint or argument of an academic work. The process of documentary research Research is creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of kno ...

. St Luke's Anglican Church was listed on the

on 2 April 1999.

References

Bibliography

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Attribution

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Luke's Anglican Church, Liverpool Churches listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register Liverpool, New South Wales Anglican church buildings in Sydney Articles incorporating text from the New South Wales State Heritage Register 1820 establishments in Australia

Old Colonial Georgian architecture in Australia Francis Greenway buildings